


Hoping to Find You

by luladannys



Category: Selfie (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-02-25 00:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2602073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luladannys/pseuds/luladannys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of one-shots about Henry and Eliza.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Secret Boards

**Author's Note:**

> Unless otherwise stated, these one-shots are not related.  
> I am accepting requests!

Henry looked down in amazement at the phone on the table before him. It looked like an alien object, not being in Eliza’s hand. Not only had she left it sitting there, but she had left it _unlocked_. The illuminated screen seemed to beckon him for some reason and Henry found himself having to refrain from looking at it.

_Eliza will be back any moment_ , he reminded himself. She had only run off to snag one of the cupcakes that Saperstein announced he had in his office.

_Furthermore, it is an invasion of privacy_ , he thought adamantly, now angry that he even had to tell himself this.

Finally, he gave into temptation and just grabbed it. It was open on the profile of her Pinterest. Henry scrolled through, glancing at all of her boards. There was Nail Art and Hairstyles and Makeup Tips. There was one whole board dedicated to just Ryan Gosling. Then, underneath all of that stuff, was a section titles Secret Boards. Each of these boards had a little lock symbol next to them and Henry assumed that meant they were private.

There were three of those secret boards -- Travel, Wedding, and Baby.

Henry wondered why these were private. Did Eliza not want her followers knowing that she wanted these things?

He flicked through the Travel board, looking at all the places he had not known Eliza wanted to go. Next was Wedding, which was full of poofy, white gowns and cute decorating ideas. Henry tried to picture Eliza in one of those dresses on the little screen. She would probably wear her hair up. And she would have a long, flowy veil with a tiara, like the one Kate Middleton had had that she gushed about to him one day.

_She would be beautiful._

Henry shook the thought away and moved on to the last board, the one titled Baby. There were onesies and mobiles and bejeweled pacifiers galore. Surprising to him, there were also little how-tos for things like sewing a blanket and making your own baby food. He caught himself smiling and didn’t know how long he had been doing that for.

It was shocking to find all of this, but a nice shock. If a few months earlier someone had told Henry that Eliza Dooley wanted to be a mother, he would have called Child Protective Services to shut that womb down for the sake of any potential offspring, but now that he knew Eliza, the idea warmed him. Now he knew that Eliza deserved all the things hidden in those secret boards.

“Victory!” Eliza’s voice exclaimed from the doorway.

Henry quickly slid the phone back over to her side of the table, silently praying she wouldn’t notice.

“I grabbed you one,” she said, talking about the cupcakes in her hands. “I hope red velvet is okay.”

Henry smiled. “It’s great. Thank you, Eliza.”

“You’re welcome. I totally almost got into a fight with Shannon from HR over it, so you better enjoy.”

They peeled the paper away from their treats and began eating. Eliza managed to get frosting on her nose. She immediately reached for her phone, but then froze and remembered Henry was there and that she was probably about to get lectured.

"Go ahead,” he said.

Henry leaned back in his seat and finished his cupcake, wearing the smallest of grins as he watched Eliza take a selfie looking down cross-eyed at the frosting on the tip of her nose.


	2. Zombie Huntin'

Henry took a deep breath. Eliza, stretching beside him, rolled her eyes.

“Henry, relax. It’s all fake.”

“I-I just don’t do so well with blood and gore.”

Eliza dropped her arms to her sides, mouth agape in disbelief. “Then why are you here?”

Why was he there? For the same reason he went to any work-related function. Saperstein.

It was Terrence’s birthday and the festivities were being held at Zombie Quest, the hottest new LA attraction. Players would run around an apocalyptic obstacle course and shoot actors dressed as human-hungry zombies.

Up until Henry arrived, he convinced himself that the invitation had been wrong and that the party was literally _anywhere else_. He had to sit in his car, looking at the red-splattered Zombie Quest sign, for eight minutes before going inside.

Eliza put her hands on her hips and moved to block him from the view of the group.

"Do you need me to help you fake an emergency? We can pretend you have cramps. Wait, guys don’t get cramps. You should be really thankful for that, by the way. We can pretend you -”

Eliza shrugged and they joined the others. While an employee with a prop shotgun strapped to his back went over the rules, Henry frowned as he caught Freddy inspecting Eliza’s outfit of a tight leather-ish top, dark camouflage skinny jeans, and black booties. He took a step forward to intercept Freddy’s view.

Soon they were all equipped with laser guns and listening to the countdown for the game to begin.

_4…_

_3…_

_2…_

_1…_

The doors to the warehouse-sized course swung open and everyone ran off to find a place to shoot from. Henry froze, then tried looking for Eliza once he came back to his senses, but couldn’t see her. He spotted Larry and ran after him.

The music that boomed all around sounded like it came straight out of an action movie and it make Henry unable to think straight. He and Larry were climbing a metal stairwell, their shoes making an echoing _clang_ with every step. A gray arm with a dirty hand grabbed for Henry’s ankle from under the stairs and he jumped what felt like two feet into the air.

Eliza, on the other hand, was kicking some major ass. She was blasting those zombie actors away left and right. She didn’t care that it was Terrence’s birthday and that Henry would probably say it was rude to win the game. Eliza was in the zone and she was not going to back down.

A shrill shriek tore through the large room. While it could easily have been mistaken for a woman’s, something inside of Eliza just _knew_ it was Henry’s. She took off to find the poor guy.

He was backing himself into a corner, too terrified to shoot at the zombies slowly limping their way towards him. Suddenly, they were on the ground, where rules stated they had to stay for thirty seconds after being shot. Henry saw Eliza standing behind where the zombies had just been. With her disheveled ponytail and the eyeliner she had smeared on her cheeks to serve as war paint, she looked like an apocalyptic goddess.

“Are you gonna stand there gawking at my zombie-killing skills or come with me before they get back up?”

Henry skirted around the actors on the floor and followed Eliza.

“Thank you,” he said after a moment.

Eliza was about to reply, but was interrupted by another zombie approaching. She fired and sent the undead woman down.

“Remember when you told me to explore other interests? What about zombie hunting?”

“You are rather good at it,” Henry answered. “But maybe choose a more realistic hobby.”

“At least my hobby isn’t making salads,” she retorted as she shot another fake zombie that Henry hadn’t even noticed.

“I’ll have you know -”

He was cut off by Eliza thrusting her gun into his arms. She pulled her phone out and leaned over to take a picture of her kill before they got back up.

From seemingly nowhere, a moaning, shuffling zombie appeared just a few feet from Henry.

“E…Eli…Eliza…”

Eliza turned to see the situation.

“Shoot him!” she exclaimed.

He couldn’t move. The actor had a much too realistic prosthetic wound on his cheek. Fake blood oozed out of it. Henry watched a drop of it fall to the floor. After that, he thought he heard Eliza calling his name, but it went dark.

* * *

Henry woke up outside on a bench. Eliza was perched on the armrest, looking down at him.

“Are you alright?”

“What happened?” Henry asked groggily.

“You fainted.”

Henry slapped a hand on his face.

“Don’t worry about it,” Eliza said. “The manager says it happens all the time.”

Henry sat up and Eliza handed him a bottle of water. She silently watched him drink it.

“You scared me,” she said suddenly.

Henry looked at her face and saw the sincerity in her features. “I’m sorry.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes and then decided to go into the lobby to wait for the others to finish the game. Eliza walked behind Henry and made a low, hollow moaning sound.

“That’s not funny,” Henry said, shaking his head as he held the door open for her.

“No,” Eliza replied. “That’s not funny. What _is_ funny is the picture I took of you being carried outside unconscious.”

“You didn’t. Eliza, tell me you didn’t…”


	3. The Rotary Phone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the support on this! I will be trying to update at least once a week! I have a list of prompts I am working from right now, but I am always accepting requests.  
> I said last week on twitter that I would write something about Henry buying the yellow rotary phone, but finally got around to it now. Better late than never, though, right?

Pink, yellow, blue, black, and white.

Henry automatically took the black and white ones out of consideration. Those colors were much too boring for Eliza. He stood there looking at the selection of rotary phones in the store of hodgepodge furnishings that Eliza would have described as "hipster" and tried to think of which color would go best with Eliza's apartment. If it were anyone else he were shopping for, he probably wouldn't have this hard of a time. But this was _Eliza_ and, while Henry would never admit it, he wanted to impress her.

The trash can had brought out something in Eliza that Henry didn't think a simple garbage receptacle could. She had lit up and opened up to him over it. Henry felt that that moment, the two of them standing over that London-themed trash can, had really been the start of their friendship.

Henry had to give Charlie credit for that, though. Charlie had picked it out. This time, Henry was going to get it.

Or, he was at least going to try.

_Three colors._

_There are_ three _colors, Higgs. Just choose one._

Pink would be the obvious choice, but he pictured Eliza using it and thought that pink would clash with her hair.

Yellow would match the copy of the Yellow Pages he was going to give her along with the phone.

Blue looked cute and all, but it just didn't scream _Eliza!_ to him.

Henry felt sweat begin to gather on his brow. He shouldn't be stressing out about something as simple as buying a gift for a friend, yet there he was.

Finally, he solved it the old fashioned way -- eenie, meenie, minee, mo.

Yellow.


	4. Hands

Every hand on Julia's back.

Every pinky interlocked with Julia's.

Every graze of the fingers against Julia.

All of these things felt like sharp pinpricks all over Eliza's skin and she didn't know why. She didn't hate Julia. She didn't necessarily like her or have anything in common with her or get along with her, but she didn't _hate_ her. Still, every time Henry touched that woman, Eliza felt something she couldn't quite explain.

After weeks of catching glimpses of Henry and Julia's pathetic little touches, she saw it.

Julia was running late to get back to work on time. Henry was trying to get her to give him a proper goodbye, but she was bustling towards the door. His hands grabbed her by the waist and turned her around for a brief peck on the lips.

Eliza witnessed the whole thing from outside the open doorway and felt the breath leave her lungs. She scurried down the hall and around the corner.

Leaning against the wall, Eliza felt her head swimming and her legs shaking and, most of all, her hips burning. Eliza wanted to cry. She had finally realized what was the matter with seeing Henry touch his miniature girlfriend.

The hands she saw touching Julia were the same hands she could still feel on herself.


	5. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a request from tumblr user lunadove.  
> "I'd love any type of fic where Henry has a nightmare about Eliza - maybe where she's marrying Freddie, or getting chased by a killer, or dying, etc. - and it gets Henry freaked out enough to call her or go over to her house in the middle of the night and be really relieved that she's okay."  
> I hope you enjoy it!

Henry blames the episode of _Dateline_ that he fell asleep watching. It was supposed to be about an internet stalker who murdered three women. He decided to watch it, as well as record it, so he could show it to Eliza sometime and perhaps encourage her to not post about where she is and what she is doing all the time. That plan backfired greatly, as soon as Henry dozed off about halfway through the episode.

_Eliza in a loud, upbeat club, dancing the night away with no inhibitions. Watching her from afar was the man from the TV, seamlessly fitting into the crowd. His cold, steady eyes followed Eliza from the bar to the bathroom to the dance floor._

_Eliza at the mall. The man staring at her through clothing racks. Once again, she didn’t notice him. How could she notice anything besides the signs proclaiming 20% off a $150+ purchase?_

_Eliza walking out of the gym, car keys and reward-smoothie, as she called her post-workout pomegranate blueberry concoction, in her hands. The lights in the parking lot were flickering. Eliza strode to her car and that was when she finally saw him. One of the tall overhead lights flashed and revealed him standing between two parked cars, his eyes glued onto her. Eliza flinched in shock and dropped her cup. Purple oozed out onto the ground. She quickly got into her car and drove off, running over the remnants of her smoothie as she peeled out of the lot._

_Eliza sitting at her desk. Her work phone started ringing. She answered it, only to hear someone’s deep breathing on the other end. Immediately, she hung up and called out to Freddy to stop messing with her. He protested, saying that it wasn’t him, but Eliza just rolled her eyes and went back to watching Beyoncé music videos instead of working._

_Eliza at the nail salon. She was sitting in the leather massage chair, flipping through a_ Cosmo _while getting a pedicure. Glancing up to talk to the woman sitting at her feet, Eliza saw something outside from the corner of her eye. It was him, the man from the gym parking lot. She recognized him and jumped in her seat, dropping the magazine into the bubbling water and nearly kicking her pedicurist in the face. She only turned away from the window for a second to apologize and when she looked back, he was gone. Eliza left with only one foot done._

 _Eliza at home, watching and live-tweeting_ Fashion Police _for her followers. There was a knock at the door. She was too busy typing on her phone to look through the peephole, expecting it to be one of her lame-o neighbors looking for a lost cat or asking her to stop leaving the light on when she left the laundry room. She opened the door and finished sending her tweet before looking at who was there._

_The man._

_Eliza tried to shut the door, but he pushed it the rest of the way open, forcing her back. She stumbled and fell. He grabbed her arm and kicked the apartment door shut behind him._

_She tried to scream and the man clapped a hand over her mouth._

Henry jerked awake, panting for breath as he tried to get a grip on himself. He was on his couch. The TV was playing late-night infomercials.

It was just a dream.

It was just a dream.

Still, Henry couldn’t shake the feeling that it had left him with. He rubbed his eyes and found his phone.

The first call rang all the way into the voicemail message and that just made Henry even more panicked, so he called again.

“What?” Eliza angrily demanded.

“I- … I-” Henry babbled because now that he had her on the phone, he didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t just tell her that he had had a nightmare about some psycho stalking her and that it had terrified him so much that he just needed to hear her voice to bring his heart rate back down to normal. Eliza would mock him for it forever.

“Henry? Hello, Henry? Are you sleep-dialing me? I’m going to hang up now.”

“Wait!”

On the other end of the line, Eliza started to sigh and it turned into a yawn.

“I just - … I don’t know, I had a feeling something was wrong. You’re okay, right?”

“I’d be better if I hadn’t been rudely awoken, but, yeah, I’m fine. Are _you_ okay?”

“I am now. Sorry, Eliza. Go back to sleep.”

“Later, weirdo.”

She had already hung up, but Henry still said, “Goodnight, Eliza,” into his phone.

He went to bed, but not before erasing that _Dateline_ episode from his DVR. Henry never wanted to think about that again.


	6. Business Baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is inspired by one of my favorite tweets.  
> "it's scientifically proven that if you imagine half of your otp with your otp's baby strapped to their chest you will never be okay again" - @ali_lauren14

Henry looked at his watch exasperatedly and then turned to the baby in the bouncy chair beside him.

"Where's your mommy?"

The little girl blew bubbles out of her mouth in response.

It was 12:47 and Henry needed to be at work for a meeting at 1:15. Eliza had gone out on what she said would be a quick trip the grocery store, but she had been gone almost an hour. Henry wouldn't be surprised if she had gotten caught up looking at something. Nowadays, though, when Eliza lost track of time in stores it was usually Gymboree or Babies R Us. Their daughter, Emily, was going to be one spoiled little girl.

When his watch hit 12:55, Henry gave up on waiting for Eliza and strapped Emily into her car seat.

He hurried into the office, carrying the car seat so he wouldn't have to find somewhere to sit the baby down.

Sam Saperstein's face looked irritated when his eyes landed on Henry slipping into the conference room nearly twenty minutes late, but his expression melted when he noticed the baby girl kicking her legs in the plastic carrier. He was the biggest softie when it came to Emily Higgs, mostly because he credited himself for making her existence possible.

"Sorry I'm late, Sir," Henry said, pulling his work out of the diaper bag he had slung over his shoulder. He and Eliza had traded their briefcases and purses for the bulky bag ten months earlier.

"It's quite alright, Henry. You didn't miss much," Saperstein replied.

Henry left a quiet toy in Emily's lap to entertain her and started going over the sales reports for the last quarter and where the company could make improvements.

"As you can see, we seem to have a decrease in our sales for chewable antacids and I think that we should be marketing that better. If we cut funds for our vitamin advertisements, we can allocate more towards pu-"

Henry was cut off by a high-pitched wail coming from his daughter. Larry wiggled his fingers in front of the baby's face to try to stop it, but that only made the cries worse. Henry apologized and hurriedly popped Emily's pacifier into her mouth. She spit it back out and continued screaming, now red in the face.

"Do you need to take a moment, Henry?" Saperstein asked.

"No, no, I got it!"

He pulled something out of the diaper bag and fumbled with it. It turned out to be a baby carrier that went on his chest. Henry slipped Emily into it and she soon calmed down.

He continued his presentation, professional as ever, with the little girl strapped to his chest. Emily was full of energy, just like her mother, and liked to constantly be moving. She enjoyed hanging from her dad's front and kicking her feet, thinking that all the attention was on her. To be fair, a good amount of the attention _was_ on her. No one in the KinderCare offices could say that Emily Higgs was not the cutest baby ever.

After Henry's conclusion, everyone at the conference table politely applauded and Emily clapped her hands together as well, giggling giddily.

Saperstein gave a few final words and ended the meeting. Henry went to his office to take care of a few things before returning home. He absentmindedly bounced his body gently to keep Emily happy while he answered emails.

Charlie came through the door, pausing for a moment at the sight of his boss standing over the computer with a baby strapped onto him.

"Is there something I can do for you, Charlie?" Henry asked, looking up from the monitor.

Charlie shook his head. "No... I just... That reminds me of that movie _Alien_ , you know when the alien comes out of the guy's chest like _raaaahh_!"

"Are you comparing my daughter to a space monster?"

"No! No! I... I, uh... Someone called for you!"

Charlie threw the post-it with the message onto Henry's desk and scurried out.

"You're not an alien are you, sweetheart?" Henry cooed, looking down at Emily.

She babbled in some sort of reply.

"Come on, let's go home."

Henry put the message in with his other work stuff to take care of at home and headed out of the office. He had to stop by the reception desk first, of course, so Emily could see her Auntie Charmonique. Then they were on their way back home.

When they pulled into the driveway, Henry noticed that Emily had fallen asleep. After all, she had had a long, hard day at the office. He gently carried her inside, where Eliza was waiting for them.


	7. Dooley After Dentist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been so long since I updated this!

“Henry,” Eliza prompted as she sat down with a total lack of disregard as to whether or not he was busy. “What are you doing on Saturday?”

He sighed and flipped the little day calendar on his desk to find it blank. “I don’t have anything planned. I’ll probably hit the farmers’ market or perhaps brave a trip to Wal-Mart for laundry deterge-”

Eliza threw her head over the back of the chair and let out a loud fake snoring sound. Henry crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to finish her childish display of boredom.

“Are you done?” he asked when she finally sat back up straight.

“Done with listening to your boring shopping plans? Yep, because I have another idea for you.”

“And what would that be?”

Eliza suddenly became very interested in her cuticles as she answered, “I have dental surgery on Saturday and I was thinking maybe you could drive me.”

“Of course I could,” Henry replied quickly. _A little_ too _quickly_ , he scolded himself.

She looked up with a smile, any of the trepidation or embarrassment she had felt about asking him the favor vanishing. Before leaving Henry’s office, just for funzies, she scribbled the time of her appointment down on his little calendar. 

* * *

 

“Might I ask why Freddy isn’t taking you today?” Henry asked at a red light.

“He’s visiting his parents for the weekend.”

“And you didn’t go with him?”

Eliza let out a short laugh. “Last time I met his parents, I dumped him in front of them, so, _no_ , I didn’t go with him. Besides, even if he were here, I don’t think I’d want him to take me. He kept threatening to make a ‘Dooley After Dentist’ video and I think he was serious.”

She told him that he didn’t have to stay in the dentist’s office while she went in, but he wasn’t going to just leave her there. Henry settled down in the waiting room, cursed himself for not bringing a book, and began to peruse the room’s selection of magazines. There were the type that he always saw cluttering Eliza’s workspace and home, full of fashion tips and celebrity gossip. There was a stack of _Highlights_ issues next to the bead track toy set out for children. The final option was bridal magazines. Henry glanced at _Highlights_ one last time before picking up an issue of _People_ from two weeks earlier. There were other people sitting there; he couldn’t get away with reading a children’s magazine.

He heard her from behind the door that led to the operating rooms. Her laughter was loud and ended with a snort that Henry couldn’t help but grin at. She would be so embarrassed if she knew that she had just made a sound like that.

The door opened to reveal a dental assistant helping a teetering Eliza. Henry jumped up to help the woman steady his friend. Eliza smiled sloppily at him.

“Henry,” she said, drawing out his name. Then, she turned to the dental assistant. “This is my friend Henry. He’s gonna take me.”

The woman smiled condescendingly. “That’s nice.”

“Not like _Taken_ ,” Eliza clarified. “Not like the movie.”

“She gets it, Eliza. Come on, let’s go.”

The woman graciously handed Eliza off to him. Henry was glad that Eliza had not worn one of her usual pairs of lethal heels that day. Three-inch heels plus whatever the dentist had given her would not have been a good combination. With Eliza’s arm slung around his shoulders and his around her torso, Henry began to guide her out of the office.

“Wait!” she suddenly exclaimed, almost bringing Henry to the ground as she quickly turned around. “I love your outfit.”

The dental assistant looked down at her scrubs. The pants were pink and the top was covered in Baby Looney Tunes characters.

“Thanks?” she replied.

Eliza smiled and whipped her head back to face Henry, too drugged up to even take note of how close their noses were to touching.

“I gave her a compliment.”

“Yes, that was very nice of you.”

Luckily, someone was entering as they finally made it to the front door and held it open for them. Henry half-dragged Eliza to his car and managed to open the passenger door. She banged her head on the frame as she tried to get inside and Henry tensed up, but she didn’t even seem to notice. He reached across her to grab her seatbelt. Eliza watched in amazement as he buckled her in.

“Safety first, Captain,” she said with a finger salute.

He chuckled and backed away to shut her door.

“What’s this?” Eliza asked, grabbing for the magazine that Henry forgot he had stuffed under his arm. “Are you reading my magazine?”

“Uh, yeah,” Henry replied ashamedly. “I was catching up with the Kardashians.”

“It’s ‘keeping up’, you big dummy.”

“Oh, my mistake.”

Henry shut the door gently, making sure she was inside all the way, and then went around to his side of the car.

Before they were even out of the driveway, Henry felt her finger press into his cheek. She giggled. He moved his head away, but a moment later it happened again.

“Eliza, stop it. I’m driving.”

She pouted and slouched down in her seat petulantly. That mood didn’t last very long. Soon, she was fiddling with the dial on the radio.

“You’re going to mess up my station settings,” Henry said, grabbing her hand and dropping it back into her lap.

He changed the station to one that he knew she liked, not realizing that now he would have to deal with a high Eliza Dooley singing.

“I’m too hot! Call a police and a fireman! I’m too hot! Make a dragon wanna retire, man!”

She pressed the window button and began serenading the passersby. It didn’t become a problem until --

“I’m too hot! BITCH, SAY MY NAME, YOU KNOW WHO I AM!”

The elderly woman in the car beside them looked rightfully offended and Henry rolled up the window before activating the child lock. After a moment of amused laughter, Eliza became distracted by the pattern on her tights and soon they were pulling up in front of her building.

She was able to walk better now, but Henry still put an arm around her because she wasn’t looking _where_ she was walking. He used her key and ushered Eliza through the door.

“I live here,” she announced, as though this was news to him.

He led her to her room and seated her on the bed, following the dentist’s orders to have her sleep off the medication. She whined, but finally fell back sideways against her unmade sheets and duvet. Henry kneeled down to untie her red Oxford flats and then helped her move to lay in the bed the right way.

“Henry, I’m hungry.”

Her words were slow and quiet, laced with exhaustion.

“Sleep for a few hours, Eliza, and then you can eat.”

She rolled over onto her side and was out within minutes.

Henry cleared some of the clutter off of her couch, knowing better than to throw anything away for fear of his life, and sat down to watch something on TV. Just out of curiosity, he checked her DVR to see what she had. There were two episodes of _My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding_ , three of _Watch What Happens: Live_ , and a CNN documentary that he remembered telling her about a few weeks earlier. She had asked him if CNN stood for Classic Nerd Network. Henry couldn’t believe she had recorded it, let alone remembered it.

After a while, he settled for reruns of _Law and Order_ and checked on Eliza every half hour or so. 

* * *

 

When she shuffled out of her room, she felt dead. She dropped down beside Henry and watched the program with him, occasionally rubbing the soreness out of her face.

“The nanny did it.”

“The episode is nine minutes in; you can’t know that,” Henry said.

“Yeah, I _can_ ,” she replied defensively. “Look at her nails.”

Forty-six minutes later, Henry turned to see Eliza grinning smugly.

“How did you do that?”

“I told you. It was the nails that gave her away,” she answered, waving her own manicure in his face.

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, whatever. Good job. Are you still hungry?”

Eliza nodded vigorously.

Henry wandered into her kitchen, gathering whatever miscellaneous items he could find, and began putting something together.

On the arm of the couch, Eliza saw her phone light up and Freddy’s face appear on the screen. She silenced the call and started giving Henry a play-by-play of what he was missing of the next episode.


End file.
